Milk, yogurt, butter, flour confectionery and a number of other food products have been removed from the list of critical imports, which at the same time has new positions: farm animals, cut flowers, yeast, planting material and other agricultural products.
The Cabinet of Ministers made the relevant changes to Decree No. 153 of February 24 on the list of critical imports by its Decrees No. 553 of May 3 and No. 554 of May 7.
Thus, non-condensed milk and cream are no longer critical imports to Ukraine; butter and other fats from milk; milk pastes; prepared foods from cereals, flour, starch or milk; flour confectionery prepared without the addition of vinegar or acetic acid vegetables (except nuts preserved in sugar).
Tomatoes, yogurt, potato starch and peanuts are also removed from the list.
In turn, the list of critical imports includes live farm animals (cattle, pigs, sheep and goats), products of animal origin (caeveta and musk; bile, including dry bile), as well as glands and other products of animal origin used to make pharmaceuticals.
The list dated May 3 was replenished with live plants for further cultivation: seedlings, cuttings and rootstocks, bulbs, tubers, roots and rhizomes that are in a state of vegetative dormancy, vegetation or flowering. Also on the list were mushroom mycelium; trees, bushes and shrubs with edible fruits or nuts, cut flowers, parts of plants and buds for bouquets or ornamental purposes.
In addition, critical imports are expanded by hop cones, yeast (active or inactive), prepared baking powders, glycerine, cocoa-containing finished products and cocoa waste, refined and unrefined olive oil, roasted malt.
As reported, the proposal to exclude dairy products from the list of critical imports was submitted in April by the Union of Dairy Enterprises of Ukraine association. According to her, since the beginning of the military invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine, 60-65% of the country’s milk processing enterprises have already resumed work, and the current volumes of their production are able to provide the Ukrainian market.
After the start of Russia’s military aggression on February 24, the government on the same day, by decree No. 153, determined a list of critical import goods, for the purchase of which the National Bank of Ukraine allows buying foreign currency. Since then, the government has changed this list more than 10 times.
According to the NBU, by mid-April, the list of critical import goods covered about 88% of all imports to Ukraine in 2021. At the same time, the National Bank does not yet call for abandoning it, since this list also contains services that are more difficult to analyze and account for.
CRITICAL IMPORTS, FOOD PRODUCTS
